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Bill Cosby vs. his Canadian accuser: Whose story will a jury believe?

Cosby was a beloved comedian and Temple University trustee. Andrea Constand of Toronto was a behind-the-scenes Temple employee. As jury selection begins soon, Constand stands alone among dozens of women who have accused Cosby of sexual assault.

Andrea Constand alleges she was drugged and sexually assaulted by Bill Cosby, who claims it was a consensual make-out session. On June 5, Cosby is scheduled to appear in court to stand trial for aggravated indecent assault.

One evening, early in 2004, Andrea Constand sipped wine and took pills offered by Bill Cosby in the entertainer’s suburban Philadelphia mansion. He guided her to the sofa and as they lay there, Cosby’s hands roamed freely under the Toronto woman’s loosened brassiere then plunged into her pants.

She was 30. He was 66.

He was a beloved comedian, Temple University trustee, “America’s Dad.” She was a behind-the-scenes Temple employee, still unknown to the wider world.

That would change.

The acts on the sofa are detailed in statements given to police by Constand and Cosby. Statements sworn to long ago. So long ago that the filing of criminal charges barely made it under Pennsylvania’s 12-year statute of limitations, and now pits the word of a big-name celebrity against that of a massage therapist as to how and why they ended up on that sofa.

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Constand, now living in Toronto, alleges she was drugged and sexually assaulted. Cosby claims it was a consensual make-out session.

On June 5, Cosby — an award-winning performer who amassed wealth, fame and respect for his family-friendly brand of humour — is scheduled to appear in the Montgomery County courthouse near his Elkins Park estate. Now 79 years old, blind and free on $1-million (U.S.) bail, Cosby will stand trial for the aggravated indecent assault of Constand.

The Canadian and the Comedian. Sitting across from each other for the first time in more than a decade.

But there is no funny punchline in this story, one that has played out before a global audience gripped by the he-said-she-said narratives contained within mammoth sets of online criminal court filings.

Close to 50 women have also gone public with similar accusations against Cosby — of being incapacitated and sexually assaulted — but Constand is the only woman whose allegations will be tested in criminal court.

How this case even made it to trial — a prosecutor initially rejected it — is equally riveting.

Constand complained to police in 2005, nearly a year after the alleged assault by Cosby. The accusations commanded attention but a local district attorney dismissed the complaint as too weak to merit charges.

Except an extraordinary set of circumstances — including the 2015 release of a damaging sex-and-drugs deposition — have prompted prosecutors to restore Constand’s abandoned complaint about one of America’s most enduring and philanthropic stars.

At next month’s jury trial, it would appear that neither the prosecution nor the defence will mince words if thousands of pages of legal documents filed with the Montgomery County criminal court are indications of their positions.

In legal arguments to include 13 additional witnesses, prosecutors painted Cosby, dubbed “America’s Dad” for his genial Dr. Cliff Huxtable character on TV, as a serial sexual predator with a decades-long history of drugging then assaulting women.

The defence has portrayed the 44-year-old Constand, a former NCAA basketball standout, as making “shifting and inconsistent” accusations and says she swallowed pills “by her own hand” that night in Elkins Park.

None of the key players in this matter — including Constand and Cosby’s legal team — agreed to be interviewed by the Star.

Instead, details from U.S. police reports, parts of Cosby’s civil deposition, an affidavit written by detectives to support the criminal charges, legal filings, news reports, social media postings and information from independent interviews have been used to tell this story.

It’s a tale that traces the journey of Andrea Constand, and how basketball talent took the Toronto native from a high school gym in the city’s east end to a college scholarship in Arizona, to a pro hoops career in Italy, before she landed a job at top-notch Temple University in Philadelphia. Cosby — a former Temple football player — was a treasured school booster and trustee.

Constand and Cosby first crossed paths at a Temple women’s basketball game. Despite their age difference, they became good friends.

Neither would have suspected that, in time, the most intimate details of their lives would be held up to public scrutiny.

Andrea Constand

Andrea Constand, a former Univeristy of Arizona basketball player and later Temple University basketball team employee.

Long before Andy and Gianna Constand first held their infant daughter in 1973, Bill Cosby’s star was shining. He’d won Emmys and Grammys and was a frequent guest on Johnny Carson’s iconic late-night talk show.

When his greatest success, The Cosby Show, debuted on network television in 1984, Constand was in grade school. Around that time, she was developing into an elite athlete who would excel at basketball.

In high school, Constand attracted interest; the six-foot sharpshooter at Albert Campbell Collegiate once scored 51 points in a game. Constand helped her school win two provincial championships. She was considered an unselfish player who was a threat at both ends of the court.

“You see players who have savvy, can shoot or play defence,” her high school coach, Bryan Pardo, told the Star’s David Grossman in 1991.

“She’s got it all and is the most complete player we’ve ever had.”

Pardo wasn’t alone in his skill assessment. Constand was heavily recruited by dozens of NCAA Division I schools, all offering lucrative athletic scholarships.

She chose the University of Arizona in Tucson. It was a losing program at the time but Constand said she “hit it off” with the coach, Joan Bonvicini, and that she was told she’d be a starting player.

“I’m ecstatic and can hardly wait to go,” Constand told the Star in 1991 when she signed her NCAA letter of intent to play for the Wildcats.

At Arizona, Constand’s best season was in her senior year. The Wildcats won a tier II national championship in 1996; the Canadian was named to the tournament all-star team. She also earned a BA in communications.

Bonvicini declined to be interviewed by the Star.

After university, Constand made Canada’s World University Games team in 1997 then signed a pro contract worth a reported $30,000 (U.S.) to play in Italy. She hoped to eventually suit up for a Women’s National Basketball Association team.

However, a WNBA offer did not materialize. Through basketball contacts, Constand heard about a job with the women’s team at Temple University. She interviewed for the position of director of operations, clinched it and began in December 2001.

As director of operations, Constand’s responsibilities included team travel arrangements, team meals, game promotions, liaising with athletic department staff and summer basketball camps. She also travelled with the team.

Constand lived alone in an apartment near the campus. The university women’s head coach at the time, Dawn Staley, was her landlord.

In a 2005 statement to Montgomery County detectives who investigated her original complaint, Constand listed the types of women’s team supporters she connected with at Temple during booster events, like March Madness kick-off parties.

Andrea Constand in 1991 as a member of Toronto's Albert Campbell Celtics, a team she helped lead to two provincial championships. (Richard Lautens)

“Former alumni, community figures, professors, teachers, local politicians, other sports figures, celebrities, lots of different people. The purpose of the people coming to the functions was to promote Temple and the interest in Temple,” she said.

One of the regular boosters was Bill Cosby. He was introduced to the tall Canadian with the shock of thick curly hair at a Temple game by a mutual acquaintance in 2002.

“When I first met him, it was like, ‘Hi, how are you?” she recalled to police of her introduction to Cosby. “It lasted a minute.”

Constand, Cosby and two others then took a 10-minute tour of the women’s new locker room to see its renovations. About 15 minutes after the tour, Cosby ran into Constand again and he “asked me about my position with Temple,” according to Constand’s police statement.

Cosby called the women’s basketball office a few days later. Constand spoke to him on the phone; she said he was concerned that Staley may have personally paid for the locker renovations and he thought it was an unfair financial burden to assume.

Constand told detectives that Cosby called the basketball office “periodically” over the ensuing weeks and “sometimes we had conversations on the phone.” The entertainer gave Constand his home phone number; she gave him her personal cell number.

“I think he was asking me for a number that wasn’t at the office so that he could contact me to make the arrangements to go to his home for dinner,” Constand recalled in her 2005 statement.

She was soon invited to her first dinner at Cosby’s Elkins Park home. Three were present: Constand, Cosby and his private chef, John-Conrad Ste. Marthe, who prepared her meal.

According to Constand’s statement to police, it was also the first time Cosby made a sexual advance on her.

Bill Cosby

Cosby in Toronto in 1990. His career took off in 1963 after an appearance on Johnny Carson's show. (Slaughter, Mike)

Bill Cosby’s official website introduces him to visitors like this:

“Charlie Chaplin. Groucho Marx. Richard Pryor.

“Over the past century, few entertainers have achieved the legendary status of William H. Cosby Jr. His successes span five decades and virtually all media, remarkable accomplishments for a kid who emerged from humble beginnings in a Philly project.”

Versatile and creative, Cosby built a mammoth entertainment career through hard work and intelligence. Its genesis, at least in part, was sparked by radio comedy shows he absorbed as that little kid in Philly.

Cosby laughed at and learned from funnymen like Jack Benny, George Burns and others who reached their audiences via radio until television sets became household staples. Their work inspired Cosby to pursue one of the toughest disciplines in showbiz: stand-up comedy. Not an easy gig for anyone. That he was an African-American in a racially polarized country, one roiling with civil rights protests in the 1960s, certainly added to the career challenges he faced.

But young Bill Cosby was funnier than most. He used family situations as fodder — familiar moments his audiences could relate to. His reputation grew.

An invitation to appear on Johnny Carson’s late-night show was an opportunity that could make or break a comedian’s career on national television. Cosby — only in his mid-20s in 1963 when Carson beckoned — nailed it.

Cosby also aced his rookie acting role (with Robert Culp) in the TV series I Spy, which ran from 1965 to 1968. He was the first African-American to co-star in a prime-time drama and the first to win an Emmy.

Cosby collected Grammys for his comedy albums, had his own short-lived TV series, called The Bill Cosby Show (he played a phys-ed teacher in Los Angeles) and starred in movies, including Uptown Saturday Night. He participated in educational programming for children, introduced the world to Fat Albert and his pals through animation, wrote books, including bestseller Fatherhood, and as a pitchman became forever linked to Jell-O snacks.

The Cosby Show, however, brought unprecedented fame.

TheCosby Show led to Bill's image as "America's Dad."

In the hit sitcom that ran from 1984 to 1992, Cosby played Cliff Huxtable, a sweater-wearing physician who solved his TV family’s problems with humour and common sense. Cosby earned wide acclaim, again drawing on family experiences as a husband and father to drive plotlines. (In 1964, Cosby wed Camille Hanks, just 19. They had five children but tragedy would claim their son Ennis in 1997. He was shot to death during a failed attempt to rob him.)

Cosby’s fortune grew with his fame. The family was generous, sharing its wealth through donations with a focus on education. The Cosbys’ largest single gift was a $20-million endowment in the 1980s to Spelman College, a historically black women’s college in Atlanta.

As for his own schooling, Cosby played football at Temple on an athletic scholarship but dropped out to pursue stand-up. He later returned to the Temple family in an official capacity, becoming a trustee in 1982. Over the years, he gave several commencement addresses.

In Philadelphia, Cosby was synonymous with Temple.

So it was not unusual for the entertainer to be on the university campus. Nor was it unusual for him to be at a sports event, cheering on the Temple Owls. He would later tell police investigators that he met Constand in late 2002 at a basketball game and confirmed that they’d struck up a friendship through subsequent phone calls to the women’s basketball office.

But each had a secret.

Cosby was sexually attracted to Constand. Constand, who is gay, was dating a woman.

Despite those unspoken sentiments, the pair still seemed to maintain an enjoyable companionship.

They exchanged gifts — such as cashmere sweaters for her, incense and T-shirts for him. They spoke often by phone. They met in different cities — once at Cosby’s New York City residence and once at Foxwoods Resort Casino in Connecticut, where she was introduced to his entertainment industry connections. Cosby reimbursed her for travel expenses or purchases: once for a $200 hair dryer — $225 with tax — after he made comments about her naturally curly hair and asked if she’d ever “blown my hair out,” Constand recalled in her 2005 statement.

When Constand complained to police, Cosby — who had never been charged with a crime — co-operated with investigators and agreed to discuss his history with her.

Thedetectives travelled to New York in 2005 to interview Cosby; the entertainer had another residence there but met them in an Avenue of the Americas office. Cosby told them he liked Constand, had a genuine interest in counselling her toward career goals and recognized that she considered him a mentor.

Cosby also had this exchange with detectives who asked about the nature of his friendship with the Canadian:

Bill Cosby told police that he and Andrea Constand had a casual, consensual sex life. He recalled at least three “petting” encounters in his home with her — all prior to the night she accused him of drugging and then assaulting her on his sofa.

Constand told police that she had no romantic interest in Cosby and rebuffed two sexual advances from him — on two separate visits to his home, the dates are not clear — before the night of the alleged assault on the sofa.

According to Constand, Cosby first made a pass at her during her initial visit to his Elkins Park home. John-Conrad Ste. Marthe, the chef, met her at the door. She described the evening for detectives like this:

Cosby greeted her and lit a fire in a back room. Then he and Constand “just conversed” until the chef brought her dinner. When Ste. Marthe asked if she’d like a drink, she agreed to have “just a little bit of red wine.” Cosby left her alone and chatted with the chef while she ate.

“Cosby didn’t eat with me. I ate my meal on the sofa just watching the fire,” she said.

She told police Cosby offered her brandy when he returned, telling her it was a rare liquor. He sat next to her. She gave him a hat, a T-shirt and some incense and he thanked her. He then reached over and “he touched my pants and my inner thigh . . . he was touching my clothes and my waist and my inner thigh.”

Constand excused herself to go to the bathroom then collected her belongings and left. Cosby gave her a bottle of perfume as she departed.

Constand told detectives she did not encourage Cosby’s advance that night. She said she felt “kind of embarrassed” when she left his home after a two-and-a-half-hour visit.

“We had just had some light conversation about my family. I never really thought he would have hit on me. He is much older than my father. I felt awkward,” she said in her police statement.

Detectives allege in their affidavit that a second incident occurred at Cosby’s home. (It’s not clear exactly when this happened.):

“(Constand) had consumed a couple of glasses of wine and was talking to him when ‘out of the blue’ Cosby unbuttoned her pants and began touching her. The victim leaned forward to stop him, at which point Cosby got up and went into the kitchen. The victim left ten minutes later with neither of them saying a word about what had just happened.”

The affidavit continues:

“Despite these advances by Cosby, the victim trusted him and continued to accept his invitations to social and professional functions.”

Cosby told detectives that sexual contact was part of his friendship with the Canadian.

However, when asked by detectives if he’d ever had sexual intercourse with Constand, the police noted in the affidavit that “Cosby gave the unusual answer, ‘never asleep or awake.’ ”

Cosby also said he initiated “petting” on every occasion, that he and Constand French-kissed. And he described one visit: “We had some petting and touching of private parts. Clothing is on. We got up two steps, which puts us in the hallway. We stop and I lift the front of her shirt and lift her bra freeing her breast. This was the first time I put my lips to her breast and she said stop. I put the brassiere down and stopped and we walked to the exit.”

When asked if Constand became angry, he said:

“No, not that I could read anything. My impression was that she just didn’t want to go that far.”

The night in question

Comedian Bill Cosby introduces "Fat Albert" at Philadelphia's Temple University's for the movie's world premiere in December 2004. Earlier that year, the incident at the core of the trial occurred at his home.
(William Thomas Cain)

But one night, according to Andrea Constand, her friend and mentor Bill Cosby went too far.

Sometime between the middle of January and the middle of February in 2004. That’s all that’s publicly known about the exact date of the alleged assault on Constand by Cosby.

Drawing from information in police statements made in 2005 and allegations in a 2015 police affidavit supporting criminal charges, this is the detectives’ account of how the night began:

Cosby called Constand on her cellphone to invite her to his home to discuss her future plans. She had recentlytold him she was considering leaving Temple and changing her career to massage therapy. She agreed to visit him and recalled to detectives he told her to wear comfortable clothing and that no one else would be there.

She arrived about 8:45 p.m. He answered the door, wearing a sweatsuit. They sat at a table and chatted for a while, with Constand telling him she had come to terms with her new plans and that “the situation had drained me a little, that I was emotionally occupied with what was going on (and) had missed some sleep over it.” He told her during this conversation that he wanted her to relax.

She excused herself to go to the bathroom and when she returned, Cosby had poured her “a very small amount” of wine in a wine glass and water in another glass. She said she hadn’t eaten very much that day and at first, didn’t want to drink the wine.

Then Cosby went upstairs and returned quickly with pills. Up to this point, Cosby does not disagree with this scenario, according to his statement to police.

This is where the stories begin to differ.

Constand told police he “urged” her to swallow three blue pills that would “take the edge off.” She said when she asked if the blue pills were herbal, Cosby said yes.

However, Cosby told detectives he gave Constand one and a half Benadryl pills, an over-the-counter medication that made him so sleepy, he would not use it before he performed on stage. He said he was concerned she was tense and was having trouble sleeping but didn’t tell her the pills were Benadryl.

Both Cosby and Constand agreed that he put the pills in her hand. Constand said she told Cosby she trusted him and took three blue pills with water, according to the police affidavit. The document also stated Cosby urged her to “taste the wine.” She said she relented and took a few sips.

The pair continued chatting but within 20 to 30 minutes of ingesting the pills, water and wine, Constand said her vision began to blur and she had problems speaking, detectives wrote.

Again, Constand and Cosby have contrasting versions of what next occurred. According to the police affidavit:

Cosby assisted Constand to the sofa, where she could lie down. She said she lost all strength in her legs, which felt “rubbery” and “like jelly.” She felt nauseous, couldn’t keep her eyes open, was not aware of any sounds, had no sense of time and was “in and out.”

The document continues: Cosby did not sit on the sofa with her but instead, positioned himself behind her. Despite her impaired physical and mental condition, the victim was aware that Cosby was fondling her breasts, put his hands into her pants and penetrated her vagina with his fingers. Cosby also took the victim’s right hand and placed it on his erect penis.

Constand “did not consent to any of these acts and was unable to move or speak during the assault,” according to the affidavit. She awoke around 4 a.m. to find her sweater bunched up, her brassiere undone and moved above her breasts. She got up to leave, saw Cosby in a robe at the bottom of the stairs, took a muffin he offered her and left the residence without saying anything.

In contrast, Cosby told police the evening unfolded like this:

He and Constand made their way to the sofa and began “touching and kissing with clothes on.” Constand did not tell him to stop or push him away. She was conscious. He touched her bare breasts and vagina but didn’t remember placing her right hand on his penis.

When asked why “the petting” stopped, Cosby told investigators:

“I never intended to have sexual intercourse, like naked bodies, with Andrea. We are fully clothed and we are petting. I enjoyed it. And then I stopped and I went to bed.”

Cosby recalled that he woke up “to get her to drive home.”

He told detectives he gave her a homemade blueberry muffin and a cup of tea as she was leaving.

A few weeks later, Constand told police she briefly visited Cosby’s home — a final time — to confront him about what happened on the sofa. When she did, he told her he thought she’d had an orgasm that night.

The fallout

District Attorney Kevin Steele, centre, announces a felony charge of aggravated indecent assault against Cosby on Dec. 30, 2015. The charge followed the unsealing of his deposition in Constand's civil suit.
(Matt Rourke)

Andrea Constand left Temple and returned to Canada in the spring of 2004. She moved into her parents’ Pickering home, eager to study for a new career in massage therapy.

Constand also began seeing a psychotherapist.

Meanwhile,over the course of 2004, Bill Cosby continued to perform, including a summertime appearance at Casino Rama near Orillia, Ont. Constand said Cosby called her and left four tickets for her and her family to see his Casino Rama show; she attended but did not meet Cosby, according to her police statement.

Constand did not tell anyone about the alleged assault until January 2005, when she said she had a flashback.

Constand opened up to her mother, Gianna Constand. They discussed the night on the sofa and on Jan. 13, 2005, Constand reported the sexual assault allegations to Durham Region police.

(Constand told Montgomery County detectives that she left phone messages for civil attorneys in Philadelphia the same day she gave a report to Durham police, causing Cosby’s legal team to question her credibility and her motives.)

Constand’s Durham Region complaint was forwarded to the Cheltenham Township police (Elkins Park is within the township) and the Montgomery County Detective Bureau; the U.S. agencies struck a joint investigation.

As part of that probe, American investigators had this question for Andrea Constand: “What caused you to wait almost one year to tell someone about this incident?”

Two reasons, she replied: concern for her Temple job and because she was “still traumatized about the whole situation.”

“Even though I was leaving (Temple) I had mixed feelings about saying anything at that point,” according to her police statement. “I want to say there was an element of fear.”

She also added: “Because I wasn’t physically injured and that there was no violence attached to the situation, I reasoned there was no reason to come forward at this point (in 2004) because I hadn’t suffered physical trauma.”

Gianna Constand called Cosby the day she and her daughter visited Durham police and left a message. Cosby returned her call on Jan. 16, 2005, and during a two-and-a-half-hour discussion, with Andrea Constand also on the line, detectives allege in their affidavit that:

Cosby confirmed he and Constand had sexual contact.

Cosby said he told Gianna Constand “there was no penile penetration.”

Cosby did not identify the pills he gave Constand when asked. Cosby said he would “have to look at the prescription bottle” because an eye condition prevented him from reading the label. He assured Gianna Constand that he’d write down the name of the medication on paper and mail it to her.

He apologized for his actions and the Constands claim he offered to pay for therapy.

In this first phone call, Cosby became alarmed when Gianna Constand demanded answers about the pills.

“I didn’t know where she was going with her questioning and I, from her tone, I’m feeling that I’m being attacked,” he told detectives.

In an exchange with investigators, Cosby expressed a fear of extortion.

Q: At any time, because of who you are, did you feel that there was the potential that either Andrea or her mother was going to use this information to either embarrass you or extort you?

A: Yes.

On Jan. 17, there was a second call; Cosby phoned the Constands. Gianna Constand recorded this conversation. Among the affidavit allegations:

Cosby was evasive about identifying the medication he pledged to disclose.

He offered to pay for Constand’s grad school studies.

He asked if Gianna Constand and her daughter would travel to meet him in Florida to discuss the matter.

On Jan. 18, a Cosby representative phoned Andrea Constand to say the entertainer would pay the expenses to fly her and her mother to Florida for a meeting. The offer was declined. The representative later told police “he had made similar arrangements for other women on Cosby’s behalf,” according to the affidavit.

Constand and her mother refused all offers from Cosby, detectives wrote.

On Feb. 17, 2005, Bruce L. Castor Jr. — Montgomery County’s district attorney at the time — issued a press release stating he had decided not to prosecute William H. Cosby Jr. The press release stated that decision could be reconsidered.

A few days after Castor’s announcement, Cosby granted The National Enquirer tabloid an exclusive interview and suggested in the story that he was targeted for extortion by false sexual assault allegations.

On March 8, 2005, Constand filed her civil suit in a U.S. federal district court. She sued Cosby for battery, assault and emotional distress.

Eventually, Cosby and Constand negotiated a civil settlement that, oddly perhaps, was enabled by the district attorney who refused to lay criminal charges.

Last year, Castor testified in a pre-trial motion filed by the defence (to dismiss all charges) that he’d made a deal in 2005 with Cosby and his legal team; Castor said he promised not to pursue criminal charges in exchange for the entertainer sitting for a civil deposition without invoking his Fifth Amendment rights against self-incrimination. In essence, Cosby agreed to give testimony under oath to Constand’s civil attorneys because he believed his words could not be used against him in any future criminal proceedings involving Constand.

Civil proceedings have a much lower burden of proof, Castor has noted.

Cosby sat for a sworn deposition on four separate dates over 2005 and 2006. The lawsuit was settled in 2006.

For a decade, even though claims of other Cosby assaults emerged, the hottest scandal in showbiz seemed dormant — until embers began to smoulder after a young comic’s routine.

In 2014, American comedian Hannibal Buress skewered Cosby with a routine captured on video that went viral. Buress called Cosby a “rapist” and scolded him for criticizing African-American culture at the same time he was accused of drugging and assaulting a number of women.

That number began to grow. The scandal reignited.

A stream of women came forward with sexual assault allegations against Cosby— some going back to the 1960s. Though the statute of limitations had expired for many accusers, the women’s stories were highly publicized, perhaps most famously so on a New York magazine cover in the summer of 2015; on it were photographs of 35 Cosby accusers.

The Associated Press asked a federal judge to unseal portions of Cosby’s deposition from Constand’s lawsuit. On July 6, 2015, he did.

It was a bombshell.

Cosby admitted in his deposition to obtaining Quaaludes, a prescription drug, to give to women with whom he wanted to have sex. He acknowledged that in the 1970s, he had had seven prescriptions in his name for Quaaludes though he never intended to ingest them because the old-school party drug made him sleepy. (He did not say he gave Quaaludes to Constand.)

Deposition details were splashed across newspapers and network news.

Shortly after the deposition’s release, the Montgomery County District Attorney’s Office reopened the criminal investigation into Constand’s complaint. On Dec. 30, 2015, Cosby was charged with three counts of aggravated indecent assault; all felonies.

Ultimately, Castor’s non-prosecution promise to Cosby could not be proven; there was no official record of the attorney’s deal.

Constand did not initiate the 2015 charges. But she agreed to co-operate with the revived criminal proceedings headed by district attorney Kevin R. Steele and will be called as a witness in the case of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania versus William H. Cosby Jr.

Constand has not given a formal interview since Cosby was charged. Her family and close friends have kept quiet more than a decade. Nor did she appear at his preliminary hearing last year — her right under Pennsylvania law.

Constand has remained virtually silent even though some people have publicly branded her a liar.

The Trial

Cosby's mugshot, Dec. 30, 2015.

Bill Cosby’s legal team has given spoiler alerts as to what awaits Andrea Constand in a few weeks when she enters Montgomery County’s Courtroom A in Norristown, Pa.

“At trial, the defence will present evidence that Andrea Constand concocted and executed a nefarious scheme to initiate a baseless criminal investigation into Mr. Cosby and leverage it to extract money from him in a civil suit,” reads part of a successful motion brief on Cosby’s behalf to exclude the civil suit settlement details.

“Ms. Constand’s credibility will be a critical issue.”

Gloria Allred is a high-profile U.S. attorney and legal commentator who attended Cosby’s preliminary hearing last year. She represents the lone “prior bad act”witness who can be called by the state to testify at Cosby’s trial. (The prosecution wanted 13 witnesses; the court approved just one with similar sexual assault allegations against the entertainer; such testimony can be introduced under state law.)

Allred expects an aggressive cross-examination of Constand.

“There’s going to be a very vigorous defence of Mr. Cosby; he has what appears to be a small army of attorneys and a very significant amount of funds to pay for his defence,” said Allred.

“So, they will do most likely what most defence attorneys do — which is attack the victim,” Allred continued.

Allred would not say if she’d ever met Constand when asked: “I don’t have any comment on that.” However, the attorney said she admires the Canadian’s pluck.

“I’m very proud of Andrea Constand and her courage in deciding to co-operate with the prosecution in this case,” Allred said.

“It’s courage under fire (and) I have confidence in her that she will take the witness stand and she will understand her duty to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth.”

As for Cosby, Allred said it’s her “educated guess” that he won’t testify.

“I do not think he would do well under cross-examination by the prosecutor,” she said.

David Butt, a Toronto criminal lawyer who provides legal assistance to sexual violence victims, said the Cosby case is an example of “adversarialism on steroids”— a rich, celebrity defendant with a large legal team battling an accuser who must testify to “traumatic and difficult” events.

“You have an extremely well-resourced defendant who is willing to stop at nothing and leverage things outside of the justice system, like publicity . . . to enhance his position,” said Butt, who is not connected with Cosby’s case and who does not know Constand.

“So, you take a system that’s structurally inhospitable to sexual assault complainants in the first place, then it’s magnified by this huge resource imbalance.”

However,Cosby has had several defeats in court leading up to trial.

One big setback: that deposition. His defence team, led by Philadelphia criminal attorney Brian J. McMonagle, could not persuade the court to suppress Cosby’s civil deposition — or the Quaalude mentions. That testimony is in.

But he’s also had victories.

Getting the court to reject 12 “prior bad act” witnesses was one. His request for a jury to be drawn from the Pittsburgh area is another. Cosby’s team successfully argued that the intense publicity surround the trial meant finding an impartial jury of his peers from the Montgomery County region would be a challenge. Jury selection begins May 22 in Pittsburgh. Cosby must attend the selection process. Constand will not be there.

Cosby has kept a relatively low profile since being charged. But a carefully managed media blitz in late April produced a stream of interviews and information to bathe him in a kinder light.

Angela Agrusa, one of Cosby’s attorneys, spoke to the Hollywood Reporter, saying “the challenge for us is to change the optics” before trial.

Camille Cosby and her husband are seen in 2009. She has stood by Bill throughout.
(Jacquelyn Martin)

“It's like the court of public opinion has found him guilty, and our job as lawyers is we now have to convince not just the judge but also the public why the initial verdict is wrong,” Agrusa told the Hollywood Reporter.

“The burden of proof for this one human being has shifted.”

Perhaps the most heartfelt message came from his youngest daughter, Evin Cosby, who at 40 is close to Constand’s age.

Evin Cosby released a statement that says her father is not a “rapist” but a good man who values and respects women. She also shared her family’s anguish over the accusations. Bill Cosby’s daughter’s words are posted on his Twitter account for his 3.7 million followers to see.

Her statement read, in part:

“My dad tried to defend himself. His lawyers tried to defend him, but they all got sued. People were constantly reaching out to me about why doesn’t your dad say something. I kept saying he’s trying, but the media is only interested in the stories of the women.”

Constand, though silent, writes on her Twitter account. Sparingly. Her tweet from April 27 came amid Cosby’s media blitz. It is not addressed to anyone:

“An unregenerate man should fear himself.”

Correction – May 15, 2017: This article was edited from a previous version that misstated the given name of the former Pennsylvania district attorney Bruce L. Castor Jr. as David. As well, the previous version misstated the middle initial of current Pennsylvania District Attorney Kevin R. Steele as Kevin J. Steele.

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